Santa Visit

We went to see Santa early this year. Last year we went a few days before Christmas, and Emily asked for something she had never mentioned before. This year I wanted to make sure we went early so that I could be prepared. It was nice because there was no one there so we had Santa to ourselves for a while and the kids had a great time.

Day at the Zoo

Here we are at the zoo on Veteran's Day. We were invited to a birthday party, so we took the opportunity for some family time. The kids had fun looking at the animals, riding the train, and playing at the park. I'm not sure what Nathaniel and Emily are doing to Daniel in this picture. He takes his Cat in the Hat everywhere. Jonathan was a good sport, even though it was his nap time. He slept on the way home. We had a great time!

My Sweet Baby

I mean, seriously! Is that the cutest smile or what? Yes, I get to smooch those cute cheeks every day. I'm a lucky Mommy!!!

And then he does something like this and I think, "You're lucky you're so cute!" Haha. I knew he was playing too quietly. This is my laundry room/office. He sure had fun!

More Pictures

My sweet boys are doing their best to read a book together.

Jonathan's play closet
We hope he doesn't tell people some day that we kept him in a closet when he was a baby. I promise we don't close the door on him! He sure loves playing with his toys in there.

Michael was getting ready to go home teaching (a visit to some members of our congregation). As soon as Andrew heard that he was going he rushed off to his room to get his church clothes on so that he could go with him. Daddy couldn't say no, of course. I mean, look at that face. Andrew's main joy in life is being Daddy's helper.

Decorating Halloween cookies.

We had so much fun yesterday at the birthday party for Emily's friend Bethany. They said all of the kids were welcome, so Jonathan stayed home with Michael and we all went. They had a hayride and hot cocoa and lots of games and fun things for the kids to do. Thank you, Hudsons! Daniel was a little ball of energy at the party, but he was fast asleep by the time we got home. Poor little guy had a rough night, and he was sick this morning. He is feeling better already, thankfully.

Monopoly Money

I'm sitting here waiting for Jonathan to wake up so that I can feed him lunch and go vote, so I thought I'd do a post about the great deals I'm getting with coupons. Almost everything I do, I get the information from http://www.southernsavers.com/. You can still find good stuff on it even if you don't live in the South. On the website, I can find out the good deals and even link to the coupons to print out. My favorite stores are Rite Aid and Publix. I used to think it was weird that all of these bloggers would post pictures of the stuff they bought, but after a few months of couponing I totally get it. Here is my example. I got all of this stuff at Rite Aid for $13.84.

If the store isn't busy I'll do two or three separate transactions, which is what I did here. I think I was the only one in the store, so I didn't hold up the line and the cashiers are always happy to let me. This is how I did it:

First transaction

3 boxes of Kleenex, $.99 each

1 box of Huggies size 5 diapers, $19.99

1 Crest Pro Health Clinical $3.99

Coupons used:

$5 off $25 purchase

$3 off Huggies manufacturer coupon

$2 off Huggies Rite Aid store coupon (you can use both on the same item)

$1 off Crest manufacturer coupon

$1 off Crest Rite Aid store coupon

$.50 off Kleenex manu. coupon

$1.00 off Kleenex store coupon

2-$1 off Rite Aid coupons on any non-prescription purchase

The total after all of the coupons was $13.25, and I used a $10 Rite Aid gift card that I got from a rebate on some good deals I got in the past. My total paid was $3.25.

I also got back $6 in +UP coupons, that are good on my next purchase.

Second transaction:

3 Kleenex $.99 each

2 Nestle Crunch Fun Size bags $2.50 each

Venus Breeze razors $5.99 (these are usually $9 or more)

Thermacare $2.99

2-Little Critter Gummy vitamins $6.79, $3.39 (buy one, get one 50% off)

I used these coupons:

$5 off $25 purchase

$1 off Thermacare manu. coupon

$1 off Kleenex manu. coupon

$.50 off Kleenex store coupon

$2.00 off Venus Breeze

2-$1 off Nestle candy

2-$1 off Rite Aid coupons on non-prescription purchases

$6 +UP reward from last transaction

Total: $9.44. I also got $2 more in +UP rewards

Third transaction:

2 boxes of Ziploc bags, $2 each

Used:

$1.25 Ziploc coupon

$2 +UP rewards

Total: $1.15, with $1 +UP for next time

Whew, it takes a while to type all of that up. It does take some time to get everything organized for a shopping trip, but now that I've been doing it for a while it is much easier and totally worth it. I only buy the stuff we can actually use, but I sometimes stock up on free stuff that I can donate. For example, I have about 12 tubes of toothpaste that I got for free or for pennies, and I'll donate what we don't need.

Let me know if you want to try this and you need help. I've decided that coupons are like Monopoly money that you can actually spend. I have been able to reduce my budget and actually stick to it. Yay!

Baby's up. Perfect timing. :-)